{"title":"Valerie Curtis","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"don-t-look-don-t-touch-book-valerie-curtis-9780199579488","title":"Don't Look, Don't Touch","description":"There is a powerful subconscious reaction that influences a disturbingly wide range of our daily behaviour - our eating habits, our relationships, our values. The very same reaction that makes us draw back, lip curled, when we step on dog dirt is also constantly at play in our lives. It is called disgust. Compared with love and fear, it has been given little attention. Yet a raft of studies show it influences what we wear, what we eat, what products we buy, who we desire, and how we vote. It underlies our attitudes to those perceived to be outside the norm: be it overweight, disfigured, or homosexual. It even guides our moral judgement. How and why did such a powerful emotion evolve? Why do people in widely differing cultures all exhibit disgust at the same things? Valerie Curtis presents a powerful theory based on recent experiments: that its origins lie in the avoidance of parasites. But in humans, with our complex social lives, it seems that the disgust response has spread much wider than its original health-promoting role. Understanding its evolutionary origins helps us both to counterbalance its harmful manifestations, such as sexism and xenophobia, and exploit it for good: Curtis is widely known for her work in promoting hygiene and health care programmes worldwide - work in which the harnessing of the potent disgust response pays great dividends.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49562485195025,"sku":"GOR005222849","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52332756304145,"sku":"NLS9780199579488","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53245913202961,"sku":"GOR014828720","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0199579482.jpg?v=1751446062"},{"product_id":"don-t-look-don-t-touch-don-t-eat-book-valerie-curtis-9780226131337","title":"Don't Look, Don't Touch, Don't Eat","description":"Every flu season, sneezing, coughing, and graphic throat-clearing become the day-to-day background noise in every workplace. And coworkers tend to move as far--and as quickly--away from the source of these bodily eruptions as possible. Instinctively, humans recoil from objects that they view as dirty and even struggle to overcome feelings of discomfort once the offending item has been cleaned. These reactions are universal, and although there are cultural and individual variations, by and large we are all disgusted by the same things. In \u003ci\u003eDon't Look, Don't Touch, Don't Eat\u003c\/i\u003e, Valerie Curtis builds a strong case for disgust as a shadow emotion--less familiar than love or sadness, it nevertheless affects our day-to-day lives. In disgust, biological and sociocultural factors meet in dynamic ways to shape human and animal behavior. Curtis traces the evolutionary role of disgust in disease prevention and hygiene, but also shows that it is much more than a biological mechanism. Human social norms, from good manners to moral behavior, are deeply rooted in our sense of disgust. The disgust reaction informs both our political opinions and our darkest tendencies, such as misogyny and racism. Through a deeper understanding of disgust, Curtis argues, we can take this ubiquitous human emotion and direct it towards useful ends, from combating prejudice to reducing disease in the poorest parts of the world by raising standards of hygiene. \u003ci\u003eDon't Look, Don't Touch, Don't Eat \u003c\/i\u003ereveals disgust to be a vital part of what it means to be human and explores how this deep-seated response can be harnessed to improve the world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50483330318609,"sku":"CIN0226131335G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51263915327761,"sku":"GOR009001215","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51915266949393,"sku":"CIN0226131335VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0226131335.jpg?v=1751227628"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-valerie-curtis.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}